Support RMT's Fightback Against Job and Pay Cuts

I suspect my plea for messages of support for our industrial action ballot on London Underground and Transport for London may have been a little crowded out by our Friday Fuckwit Pastor Phelps. So this is a wee post to bump it back to your attention.

Tomorrow, RMT sends out ballot papers to nearly 10,000 members on LU and TfL. You can read about the issues here on the 'RMT London Calling' website, which is run by reps and activists in the union's London Transport region, not by head office. Suffice to say, we face 1,000 job cuts, thousands more to come, a 5-year pay freeze that amounts to a year-on-year pay cut, and a clampdown on attendance and discipline involving stories of injustice that would make your hair curl.

Management are laying it on thick that workers in other industries are losing their jobs and agreeing to pay cuts or freezes, trying with some success to make RMT members feel guilty and selfish for standing up for ourselves. The truth is that if RMT did not fight back, it would not save one single job or or stop any pay cuts in any other industry. Conversely, effective action by Underground/TfL workers may start to turn the tide of workers taking the hit for the bosses' crisis.

It would be a real boost for workers' morale and confidence if we could circulate messages of support. Tell Tube workers that we are right to fight back, that accepting attacks on pay and jobs will not help workers in other industries one bit, that the bosses have got a rank cheek telling workers that we have to pay for their crisis and that we should tighten our belts while they are ostentatiously not tightening theirs.

Please email messages to me, giving your name and if relevant the union/campaign you are a member of.